Wort chiller efficiency idea. Crude drawing.

[btbnl]

Way off topic...



That's a little complicated. The universe is infinite, and expanding. It may also be closed (by the definition of "universe", although that's far from clear), but for a particular observer, a radiating heat source at some distance is also radiating heat in the other direction that can never reach the observer, as that radiated energy will always remain beyond the observer's future event horizon. So while the universe may be closed, the observable universe isn't closed, and as far as any observer is concerned, his observable universe is an open system.

Expansion also does some funny things, as a larger universe has many more gravitational modes than a smaller one, which is why the universe now can have much larger temperature variations than it used to have, and why we have bright things in a dark sky within a universe which was once all same temperature.

Fellow cosmologist?

 

[Gavin C]

Way off topic...



That's a little complicated. The universe is infinite, and expanding. It may also be closed (by the definition of "universe", although that's far from clear), but for a particular observer, a radiating heat source at some distance is also radiating heat in the other direction that can never reach the observer, as that radiated energy will always remain beyond the observer's future event horizon. So while the universe may be closed, the observable universe isn't closed, and as far as any observer is concerned, his observable universe is an open system.

Expansion also does some funny things, as a larger universe has many more gravitational modes than a smaller one, which is why the universe now can have much larger temperature variations than it used to have, and why we have bright things in a dark sky within a universe which was once all same temperature.

Infinite, no. Without boundary, yes quite likely.

The rest is a mixing up of relativity and thermodynamics. Theories working on the very large scales of matter/ energy and modeled closed systems respectively.

The reasons behind the variation in matter/energy densities in the observed universe is still an area of ongoing exploration both by the theorists and experimentalists alike. Far from a consensus I would suggest.

For anyone following the thread and getting put off by the mere mention of things like thermodynamics, which we all obey on a daily basis and use constantly (whether we want to or not), a great read is to be had in "Fear of Physics" by Lawrence Krauss

Very enjoyable and approachable. Covers a lot of this kind of fundamental stuff. ( Energy and the like) The more you know....

 

[btbnl]

Infinite, no. Without boundary, yes quite likely.

The rest is a mixing up of relativity and thermodynamics. Theories working on the very large scales of matter/ energy and modeled closed systems respectively.

The reasons behind the variation in matter/energy densities in the observed universe is still an area of ongoing exploration both by the theorists and experimentalists alike. Far from a consensus I would suggest.

For anyone following the thread and getting put off by the mere mention of things like thermodynamics, which we all obey on a daily basis and use constantly (whether we want to or not), a great read is to be had in "Fear of Physics" by Lawrence Krauss

Very enjoyable and approachable. Covers a lot of this kind of fundamental stuff. The more you know....

Still

Infinite, maybe. No boundary, definitely.

Once you have any kind of seed density perturbations, gravity ensures that they will grow and grow and grow. The only real question is the origin of the seeds; our current theory for these is quantum fluctuations in the very early Universe amplified by a period of extremely rapid expansion during which the Universe grows in size by a factor of a billion billion billion. Both the quantum fluctuations and the period of inflation are on a pretty solid footing, theoretically and observationally.

 

[GrogNerd]

if Edison hadn't invented the lightbulb, we'd have to watch TV in the dark

 

[bu_gee]

The idea isn't a bad one but I think your order of operations is backwards. You generally want to provide your greatest delta-T to your least efficient heat exchanger. Then you can use the somewhat diminished delta-T on your more efficient exchanger.

In this case it means filling your "bucket" with the water and then pumping that water through your immersion chiller and to your heat rejection system (waste water in this case).

Pumping here may be a simple as siphoning the water from the bucket through the chiller into a collection bucket.

 

[TallDan]

The idea isn't a bad one but I think your order of operations is backwards. You generally want to provide your greatest delta-T to your least efficient heat exchanger. Then you can use the somewhat diminished delta-T on your more efficient exchanger.

In this case it means filling your "bucket" with the water and then pumping that water through your immersion chiller and to your heat rejection system (waste water in this case).

Pumping here may be a simple as siphoning the water from the bucket through the chiller into a collection bucket.

Well, that's perhaps an interesting thought, run cold water into the bath, use a pump to run that water through the chiller.

I still suspect it's not going to be worth it in mess/work vs decreased cooling time, however.

 

[JohnSand]

And the water wasn't being wasted after all, because it stayed in the universe! So really there's no point in chilling the wort.

 

[bu_gee]

I still suspect it's not going to be worth it in mess/work vs decreased cooling time, however.

Unlikely, but it might be worth the experiment especially if you have a spare bucket sitting around. It definitely won't save you time, but it may save a gallon or two of water which is eco-friendly if you're into that sort of thing or forced to in certain localities.

As a few other tips from my external water-bath cooling efforts: Make sure you put something like a trivet under the pot so water gets underneath. Feed your water in at the bottom of the bucket and siphon the warmed water from near the surface of the water to maximize your external delta-T.

 

[ong]

If the water coming out of the chiller is still quite cool, it indicates that you've got the flow rate up too high. Either increase the amount of heat being exchanged during the time the water is passing through the chiller (e.g., by stirring), or decrease the flow rate, so the water spends more time in the chiller and soaks up more heat.

 

[PlexVector]

Way off topic...



That's a little complicated. The universe is infinite, and expanding. It may also be closed (by the definition of "universe", although that's far from clear), but for a particular observer, a radiating heat source at some distance is also radiating heat in the other direction that can never reach the observer, as that radiated energy will always remain beyond the observer's future event horizon. So while the universe may be closed, the observable universe isn't closed, and as far as any observer is concerned, his observable universe is an open system.

Expansion also does some funny things, as a larger universe has many more gravitational modes than a smaller one, which is why the universe now can have much larger temperature variations than it used to have, and why we have bright things in a dark sky within a universe which was once all same temperature.

Way, way, way off topic.
However the perspective of an observer outside the universe would not be bound by spacetime of that universe and thus it could appear closed. Of course the observer would have to be a higher order of dimension than the universe. The bigger question is if dark energy permeates the multiverse, then a universe is definitely not a closed system.
(I'm not trying to be a cosmological troll...just thinking outside the box.)